The 600-foot stroll was on a cable strung 180 feet above U.S. Highway 41 along the Sarasota, Florida, bay front. The 34-year-old, who hails from multiple generations of high-flying daredevils, was not wearing a safety tether, and there was no net below to catch him if he fell.

Thousands watched from 180 feet below and television cameras broadcast it live to the world, a stunt intended to promote Wallenda's performance with his wife and other family members at Circus Sarasota.

Dozens of people were found slain execution-style in bloody Syria Tuesday, yet another grisly act that opposition activists blame squarely on the government.

The corpses were of at least 81 men who were apparently executed. Residents found them in the Queiq River in the town of Bustan Al-Qasr, near Aleppo city, opposition activists said, and they were pulled from the river.

The head of the National Football League Players Association says the league can take quick steps to help players' health by ending its opposition to the players' worker compensation cases.

DeMaurice Smith spoke CNN's Carol Costello in an exclusive interview on Tuesday after word that the union is giving $100 million to a Harvard Univeristy-led study on player health.

The study will take 10 years, but Smith said the league can start making things better for players now.

‚ÄúWe are asking the National Football League to stop fighting our players on their worker‚Äôs comp cases, which is the main way our players get health care for the injuries they suffer at work," Smith said.

The United Kingdom is prepared to deploy up to 40 troops to a European Union military training mission in Mali, and up to 200 troops as trainers in English-speaking West African countries, British Defense Minister Philip Hammond told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Hazardous smog was covering Beijing on Tuesday, reducing visibility to less than 200 meters (200 yards) in parts of Chinese capital while forcing the cancellation of airline flights and the closure of highways, Chinese state media reported.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported that at 8 p.m. local time Tuesday air quality had been at hazardous levels for the past 24 hours, meaning that ‚Äúeveryone should avoid all physical activity outdoors; people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should remain indoors and keep activity levels low,‚ÄĚ according to the embassy‚Äôs website.

Citizens were fed up with the hazardous air. The latest blanket of smog, which began to cover the eastern China area on Monday, is the fourth to menace the area since the beginning of the year.

President Obama will deliver his fourth State of the Union address before Congress on February 12.¬† Watch CNN.com Live for all of your political coverage.

Today's programming highlights...

9:30 am ET - Clinton town hall - As she winds up her term as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton will hold a global town hall-style forum at the State Department.¬† Questions will be taken from an audience, as well as online, social media and broadcast.

The NFL Players Association is negotiating a $100 million, 10-year deal with the NFL to "diagnose, treat and prevent injuries and illnesses" in players, according to a proposal obtained by CNN. The study would be awarded to Harvard University if it goes through.

"No one has ever studied these players before," said Dr. Lee Nadler, dean for clinical and translational research at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the proposed study. "There have been postmortem studies looking at the brains of previous players, but not the players today."

Nadler said that what distinguishes this study is that it will look at the "whole player across his whole life, not just the brain."

Health workers administering polio vaccinations came under fresh attack in Pakistan on Tuesday, the first since a spate of such attacks left eight dead last month.

A policeman assigned to protect the vaccination team was killed when gunmen opened fire on them in the Swabi district of northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Faazil Khan, a police spokesman.

The two women, who made up the team, survived the attack and returned to their headquarters after the incident, he said.

Souls rose to heaven symbolically Monday night, when marchers in this southern Brazilian town remembered those who perished in a nightclub inferno during a packed concert.

The mourners, wearing white, released 231 white helium balloons into the sky - one for each life lost.

They hope there won't be more.

Eighty three more victims lie hospitalized - 75 of whom could forfeit their lives to the severe burns and smoke inhalation they suffered when the Kiss nightclub went up in flames Sunday, authorities said.

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